Both of these Museums bordering Whānganui-ā-Tara shores are worth a visit. That's what I have done recently. Part of my motivation was to check their suitability for a visit from Gutenberg descendants on Sunday 22 March 2026 when we are together for the sesqui celebration of the Gutenberg's arrival in the Harbour. While neither has displays about the Vogel scheme or the ships, like the Gutenberg, I think the Wellington Museum displays are more helpful in gaining a better historical understanding of Wellington and its harbour. We plan to schedule a visit to the Wellington Museum on our Sesqui Sunday. Click on the images to visit websites.

The other two activities planned on Sesqui Sunday are a harbour crossing to Day's Bay on a East by West Ferry and Kai & Kōrero, possibly at the Loaves and Fishes hall at Wellington Anglican Cathedral, adjacent to the Parliamentary buildings (tbc).

This is the tentative title of a Gutenberg Sesqui-centennial book I am writing to help commemorate the Gutenberg, its immigrant passengers and early descendants. This project is proceeding apace and it's planned that the book will be with the printers early in January with publication before 22 March.
While it will be nigh impossible to have information about every passenger, particularly the single immigrants, it is hoped that all married couples and families will have a mention.
Draft extracts from this publication are below in a PDF file.

Book sale price will be $30-$40 and orders will be invited before year's end.

This is a final plea to (Wellington Trip) Gutenberg descendants. I am still seeking genealogical, historical, anecdotal and first generation information that may add value to the biographies that I seek to include in the Sesqui Publication. Anything you have (written or pictorial) relating to the Gutenberg immigrants: pre-departure, onboard or post arrival 1976 to 1926. A conveniently accessible passenger list is here for you to check if your ancestor travelled on the Gutenberg to Wellington.: ​

It would great to have your contributions by the end of November.

Many thanks,
Terry Alve
027 600 1926
​[email protected]

I have today published a first newsletter (attached) promoting a Gutenberg Wellington Descendant Reunion. This gathering will run from 10am-5pm on Sunday 22 March 2026. It will provide descendants and associates opportunities to interact, sail on Wellington harbour (Whanganui-a-Tara) and visit the Wellington Museum which features early Wellington maritime exhibits. We will korero and hear some input about conditions in Europe when our forbears left in 1875, receive information about the 100 day sea voyage on the Gutenberg sailing ship and how it was for these immigrants when they arrived in Aotearoa, including where they went. Click on the button to view the newsletter pdf.

Posted by Terry Alve -  Reunion Organiser.
027 600 1926  |  [email protected] ​

The ship Gutenberg passenger list below contains the names of those who travelled from the port of Bremmerhaven, Germany leaving on the 18 December 1875. They arrived in Whanganui-a-tara (Wellington Harbour) on 23 March 1876. It will be 150 years to the day on Monday 23 March 2026 when these Vogel Scheme immigrants arrived in Wellington. Alve descendants are planning to mark the occasion with a gathering in Wellington (and possibly cruise on the harbour) on Sunday 22 March 2026. If you are a descendant of one of the immigrants who arrived in Wellington on this ship you might like to join us.

The Alves and the Schormanns knew each other in the Ruhr Valley, Germany, travelled together on the Gutenberg, worked on the construction of the Rimutaka railway line and subsequently building the line to Masterton before farming together on the Alfredton Road east from Eketahuna from 1880.

Heins Briesemann moved to Stratford and farmed. His grandson Trevor and his children live in Tawa, Wellington near where I live.

Tina White (a great grand daughter) wrote an interesting historical reflection about Clara Malgraff and her family who, within a  week of landing in Wellington, travelled on the s.s. Napier to Foxton, as did about 30 others early April 1876. She eloped (and married leter 1876 as a 15 year old) with Jan Iskierka, a Polish man who had arrived a short time before on the Terpsichore. Her family subsequently went to Whanganui. She (Clara Malgraff Iskierka) lived into the 1930's dying in Auckland. https://tinyurl.com/malgraff 

Perhaps you are a (Wellington) Gutenberg passenger descendant, or know someone who is. If so you may be interested in getting in touch. Perhaps marking this occasion is something that you would like to do. Get in touch: [email protected] or ​027 600 1926. 

Terry Alve
Alve Family Historian & Genealogist

We have recently obtained a picture of the ship Gutenberg taken when it was on an Adelaide, Australia slipway undergoing an annual inspection in 1868. At that time it was named the Edinburgh before it was sold to a German company to become the immigration ship Gutenberg Gutenburg).
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